Listening to Sage Merrill on the Crucible Radio podcast a while ago, it sounds like Bungie is working on Warlock balance at the moment. I'd like to offer my thoughts on the Stormcaller in the hope that it won't be nerfed as severely as the Sunbreaker (deservedly) was.
Stormcaller has a powerful super (read massively OP with Transcendence) with an average neutral game.
[b]What makes it powerful?[/b]
In my opinion the combination of Landfall + Transcendence + Ionic Blink is the most terrifying to face as well as the most rewarding to play as. Transcendence lasts for 24 seconds like this. I can landfall and pop a Titan bubble or counter any close range super and then can hold down the trigger and continuously zap, all without draining energy and I have a very powerful evade in ionic blink at the cost of a couple of seconds each time I use it. There is no downside.
[b]How would I fix it?[/b]
By mixing up the skill tree. Players need to be made to choose between Ionic blink and Transcendence, I'd do this by switching the Landfall and Transcendence nodes. Simple as that.
[b]What would switching Landfall and Transcendence mean?[/b]
Players would have to choose between a long duration super that can be team shot / sniped down relatively easily or a shorter super that can evade and still cause havoc in short skirmishes. Moving Transcendence to the super skill tree would have the happy bonus of buffing the neutral game, as the player can run Impossible Machines, keep landfall, and free up the Feedback or Pulsewave perks which are currently mostly neglected in favor of Transcendence. This also keeps Stormcallers relevant in PvE where the duration of Transcendence or even Superconductor are useful but Ionic Blink is expendable.
Please let me know your thoughts, agree or disagree, all I ask is that you reply with solid reasoning.
Thanks.
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*gets killed by Stormtrance* *spawns* *takes 3 steps* *killed by the same Stormtrance that just killed me 10 seconds ago* happened to me twice in the same match yesterday my opinion on nerfing it is to just adjust the length of it.... when an Arc Blade slashes or Sunbreaker throws a Hammer, their super drains whether or not they actually hit anyone....... Stormtrance doesnt.... i think the Super energy should drain faster as the user is zapping, and even if no one is in range while the trigger is pulled, the attempted zap should still use up energy..... by doing this, players will have to use the super more strategically rather than just hold down the trigger and float around the map until it expires....